Page 2 of The Fighter
I ducked down behind a bush to assess the situation. The wide human chain of what I assumed were all second and third-year cadets were doing to us newcomers what had probably once been done to them. They all had their backs to me, focused on keeping the other recruits in the water and protecting the box with red sticks that stood between them and me.
Getting to the box would be a short sprint from where I was hiding, but I would have to get past the large man standing close to it. To fight off a man his size would be hard on a good day, and I was wet, cold, and weak. I shifted position as my feet were sinking deeper into the cold mud.
“What are you fuckers waiting for? There’s only one stick left,” the instructor shouted again. “I knew you didn’t have it in you the moment I saw you losers. I can smell a bunch of failures when I see them.”
Don’t listen to him. My only failure would be to give up. I'm not giving up!I was just about to make a run for it, but then a fight broke out between some of the masked men closest to me.
“I fucking told you to keep an eye on her. Where is she?” The man talking pulled his mask off and pushed at two other men with a low growl of aggression. I recognized him as another of our instructors.
“I swear, she was there a few minutes ago.” Another man my age pulled his mask off, pointing to the water.
“Just fuckingfindher!”
When the two younger men followed the instructor out into the lake, others on the shore began shouting questions.
“What’s happening?”
“The woman. She fucking drowned or something…”
“What?” The rusty voice of the headmaster of the academy had been calm when he welcomed us new recruits two weeks ago; now his tone was furious. “You fools better fucking find her or I’ll drown every one of you myself.”
More of the men walked into the water and it created holes in the long human barrier, giving wet recruits the chance to push their way through. They were all running for the box with the last red stick in it.
That stick is mine!
That thought made me sprint ahead to beat the four other recruits running for the box. But my sprint was no sprint at all. My frozen feet and weak legs made my movements uncoordinated and slow.
Nooo!My mind was screaming for me to get there first, but two of the male recruits were moving much faster than me and there was no way I would get to that box before they did. Trying to go faster made me slip on the muddy ground and I fell flat on my back.
It’s over!I knew it and my eyes closed, waiting to hear the howl of victory from the last recruit to pick up a stick.
But the howl I heard was one of pain and it made me lift my head and look up. The large masked protector of the box was fighting with everything he had.
As if a puppet master controlled my body, I got up and zoomed in on the box. The ten running steps felt like a trip around the world, but I reached the box at the same time as one of the male recruits and both of us threw ourselves onto it to get the stick. My hands were on it first, but he ripped it from me.
“Yeees…” he screamed and raised the red stick in the air. And then he sunk to his knees, his face scrunched up in agonizing pain as his hands went to his crotch and the stick fell to the ground.
“It’s mine!” I picked it up and took a step back, not feeling the least bit bad about kicking him so hard. Raising the stick high above me and giving an ear-splitting whistle, I called out to the headmaster in the water. “Are you looking for me?”
Everyone turned in my direction
“Raven.” The headmaster’s immediate expression of relief was quickly gone when he saw the stick in my hand. The way his eyes widened in complete disbelief was almost comical, and then his mouth opened and his fist slammed down in the water as he spewed a long string of profanities.
No one offered me a blanket or hot cocoa. All I received were hateful glances from the forty-seven recruits who hadn’t made it and would be going home. As the men around me pulled off their masks, their curses matched the headmaster’s as he came out of the water to stand in front of me.
“Who let you through?”
“No one did.”
“Then how did you get that?” He pointed to the stick in my hand.
Raising an eyebrow, I spoke in a flat tone. “I dug my way under your fence.”
He was shaking like me, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from anger. Stepping closer with his jaws tensed up, the headmaster hissed low.“Go home, woman!There’s no fucking way I’m letting you make a joke of this fine academy. You won’t get through the training so you might as well give that stick to someone who is worthy.”
“You mean someone who is male?”
His upper lip lifted in an expression of disgust. “Yes, and get some goddamn clothes on. You’re practically naked.”
